Bio

“If intimacy intrigues you and makes you into a skittish peeping tom, then be sure to catch Bue at her next performance.” – Alan Sparhawk, Low

Mary Bue is an indie musician and yoga studio owner based in Minneapolis. A prolific songwriter with 7 albums under her belt, Mary’s music touches upon archetypal themes of the human condition: love, loss, triumph, dreams, and the natural world. A longtime student of yoga and psychology since her early teens, Mary weaves sacred subject matter into her songs with inquiries into the spirit, the seeking of deeper levels of consciousness, and deep concern for the environment all mixed into her sometimes crass, real-world hue. Mary recently opened Imbue Yoga in South Minneapolis – an intimate, beginner friendly studio featuring many lineages of yoga – quite the “multi-passionate entrepreneur.” For the early half of 2017 Mary was an Artist in Residence at the Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, NM – spending time creating in solitude, along the Rio Grande river gorge and Sangre de Cristo mountains. She released her 7th project The Majesty of Beasts in May 2017 which landed on 2017’s Best of Minnesota Music lists for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and #3 in the City Pages. Mary’s long-time support of PAVSA (Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault) as well as the release of this EP was also recognized in November, honoring Mary with 2017 Community Ally of the Year.

NEW EP THE MAJESTY OF BEASTS

The Majesty of Beasts is Mary Bue’s 7th release, thick with transformative events which occurred in its making. The content ranges from trivial, catchy pop-punk to harrowing personal hell. From leaving behind a broken dishwasher and a toaster oven in “The Shit I left in Duluth,” to feeling like an aging loser in a sea of hipsters at a bar in “Minnesota Goodbye,” Mary ventures deeper into environmental and humanitarian concerns in the title track “The Majesty of Beasts.” By far her most aggressive recording to date is “Petty Misdemeanor” in which Bue reveals to the public for the first time her experience of being a victim/survivor of sexual assault and the injustice/betrayal/failure of the legal system and close communities when dealing with this type of trauma (a portion of the proceeds of records sold will go to aid for supporting victims of sexual assault).

The Majesty of Beasts is Mary Bue’s first venture onto vinyl with a limited edition run of EPs. This album fit together like puzzle of numerous moving parts: a prize from Welcome to 1979 studios in Nashville’s Battle of the Bands, (where the EP was recorded), a career development grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, a successful crowdfunding venture with Kickstarter and a coming together and breaking up of a band of two years (not to mention a divorce and a move to Minneapolis). These four songs are a close companion in nature to 2015’s Holy Bones and is a sentiment to the depths Mary continues to plumb in her own personal heavens and hells as well as our society’s.

Full Bio:

“There is a curious power in the ability to view one’s life with an unjaundiced eye. It’s not about being fearless, although that doesn’t hurt, it’s about the ferocity of spirit required to accept the world as it is and move forward from there. Singer/songwriter Mary Bue’s songs crackle with this power, mixing piano and guitar, folk and pop, and redolent with private tragedy and shared elation. Her voice, described as “marvelously sultry and cool,” lends her vivid, sometimes existential lyrics a texture that is both intimate and expansive. This intimacy is Mary’s calling card. Her lyrics invite you in and you’re right there with her as she sings, barefoot in the sand or walking along the Mississippi, heart pounding from your chest, letting go, hanging on, vibrant, alive. She brings you into her adventures, trials, and triumphs through her lyrics, and keeps you engaged with melodies you’ll find yourself humming to yourself long after the music has ended.” – Aaron Richner

Mary describes her own work as the retellings of adventures, mishaps, and pains-in-the-ass. Which is simply to say that through her experiences touring the country, studying yoga from 2008 to 2011 in Seattle, attaining a Bachelors degree in psychology and falling in and out of love, she has a lot of wisdom to retell. The songs are a map she has drawn through the depths of the ocean of human experience; and even though the lyrics are often pulled from secret, dark places, Marys presence is a positive one, full of laughter and light. – Amy Clark, KAXE

In 2014, Mary was awarded a career development grant from Arrowhead Regional Arts Council (ARAC) with the proposal to stretch & challenge her skills and release an album on her second instrument, the guitar (piano being her first instrument). The result was 2015’s “Holy Bones” deemed “Highly recommended” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Also in 2014, Mary won a full day of recording at Nashville’s Welcome to 1979 Studio. In 2016 she cashed in on that prize and recorded “Majesty of Beasts” a four song EP to be released on vinyl in January 2017. Amidst all of the music stuff, a few years of touring + gigging full time, Mary moved to Minneapolis in May 2016 to open a yoga studio – Imbue Yoga. She currently runs & teaches at the studio with 5 other instructors, and is gearing up for a 3 month Artist in Residence award in Taos, NM January – April 2017 at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Never a dull moment …

Holy Bones is an indie-pop, musical commentary regarding a frazzled & hungry society. Written primarily on electric guitar with thick bass & rock ‘n roll drums, her new sound is fresher and lighter even when exploring the shadows of the modern American psyche. Mary Bue’s 6th studio album is a creative shift from her typical piano-driven singer-songwriting, funded in part by a career development grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council of Minnesota.

The impetus for Holy Bones sprang out nightmares of cleaving a grand piano in half with a table saw. Sassy and full of fire and joy, the songs explore themes like simplicity, following your bliss, mindfulness and love as well as darker shades of human experience – addiction, family dysfunction, mortality and the inhumane treatement of animals. Pop-punk track Cheribum sings of a child angel digging around in the dump for love letters, Veal is sung from the perspective of a calf confined and going to slaughter, to “certainly never jump over the moon.” Archaeology is a wistful, country-esque love song about the history told by examining a troubled couple’s recycling bin.

Holy Bones is a reflection of the shattered attention spans which swirl in modern American life, the enormous pressure we carry to attain wealth and success, and the ultimate bliss of letting go